From the desk of ... Mary Robinson Reynolds, M.S.
Re: A New Approach that Works when schools WORK IT!

I'm writing today to keep singing the praises of Principal Jim Sporleder, because he stepped up to implement an approach that is NEW to many educators today, but which IS the approach I've been striving to promote as the new norm in mainstream education for over 25 years.

How Principal Mr. Sporleder stumbled across an epiphany
By jestevensin ACE Study

It's the Spring, and Jim Sporleder's mind more or less silently exploded.

This is a guy with 25 years experience as a principal. In Walla Walla, he's got a rep for really connecting with kids. He preaches "discipline with dignity".

John Medina - a developmental molecular biologist who's an improbable cross between an old-time rip-snortin' preacher and Jon Stewart - just drilled a hole in Sporleder's brain and dropped this in:

Severe and chronic trauma (such as living with an alcoholic parent, or watching in terror as your mom gets beat up) causes toxic stress in kids. Toxic stress damages kid's brains. When trauma launches kids into fight, flight or fright mode, they cannot learn. It is physiologically impossible.

Sporleder was three years into an exhausting stint as principal of the Lincoln Alternative School. He'd asked for the position after reading a report about the troubled school. The report quoted a couple of Lincoln High's kids: "We're the dumping ground," one said. "Who cares about us," another said. It wasn't a question.

"That report riveted me," says Sporleder. "I'm a person of faith. I felt called to come over here."

Gangs controlled the school. It had only 50 students, but they were the toughest in the school system - the kids who'd been kicked out of other schools. Lincoln was their last chance.

"I didn't know if I was going to make it," recalls Sporleder. "We had some pretty rough kids. It took me quite a while to get on top of that."

And then, at the behest of Teri Barila, co-founder of the Children's Resilience Initiative in Walla Walla, he went to this meeting where this guy who's part comedian, part evangelist, part scientist (and best-selling author of Brain Rules) more or less tells him that this "discipline with dignity" stuff is, well, useless. Punishing misbehavior just doesn't work. You're simply adding trauma to an already traumatized kid.

"He explained it in lay terms," says Sporleder. "I got it."

Now, some people who are well into their careers can't handle a paradigm shift. It's overwhelming. That's mostly because it's just too much trouble to change the way you do ...everything.

Spoiler alert: Sporleder isn't one of those people.

He returned from Spokane to light a fire under his teachers. He felt compelled to figure out a way to do something different to reach his kids, but wasn't sure exactly how.

(Before new approach)
798 suspensions (days students were out of school)
50 expulsions
600 written referrals

(After new approach just one year later)
135 suspensions (days students were out of school)
30 expulsions
320 written referrals

NEWS FLASH
New approach to school discipline - suspensions drop 85%

"It sounds simple," says Sporleder about the new approach." Just by asking kids what's going on with them, they just started talking. It made a believer out of me right away."

Still, if other schools adopt this approach, it won't be easy, says Sporleder. He knows that his peers discipline "like I used to discipline. I think our educational system reacts to the action. We need to respond to what is causing the action.

"This is such a paradigm shift, you have to believe in it to make change happen," Sporleder says. "The administration has to show support. That's what I've seen. You've just gotta believe in it. You've gotta know that it's true."

Don't wait another school year to get these kinds of results for your school!

Watch this movie: Lost Cause Kid Movie - lostcausekid.makeadifference.com

Reaching out to make a world of difference NOW!


PS ...For more information about how YOU can DROP SUSPENSIONS by 85% with the NEW APPROACH - start preparing NOW to bring Make A Difference with the Power of Acknowledgment UTrain Program into your school go to: makeadifference.com/Project

MDPA UTrain Program is specifically designed to:

==> create social connectedness
==> provide concrete support in times of need
==> teach social and emotional competence

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